


A Bouquet of Alstroemerias

by keykiyoshi7443



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Failed prompt fill, Friendship is Magic, Gen, I tried for ngst, Language of Flowers, Minor Character Death, flowers are badass, i don't know how to tag, maximum effort, this was going somewhere, yes I did quote deadpool
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-27
Updated: 2016-08-27
Packaged: 2018-08-11 07:33:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7882345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keykiyoshi7443/pseuds/keykiyoshi7443
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>al·stroe·me·ri·a</p><p>/ˌalstrəˈmirēə/</p><p> </p><p>  <em>noun</em></p><p> </p><p>noun: <strong>alstroemeria</strong>; plural noun: <strong>alstroemerias</strong></p><ol>
<li>a South American plant with showy lilylike flowers</li>
<li>meaning: friendship, devotion</li>
</ol>
            </blockquote>





	A Bouquet of Alstroemerias

Not many people knew that Robin and Dick Grayson, were one and the same. They were simply too different. Robin was a teenage vigilante that took down criminals at night and was very well trained in martial arts and acrobatics.

Dick Grayson was an orphaned circus brat who was adopted by a billionaire. He was a mathlete and the target of the schools bullies. They had almost nothing in common. No one made the connection. Well almost no one.

There was a very short list of people who knew his secret identity, and an even shorter list of those who figured it out by themselves. In fact, there was only two people who’d ever figured out his identity by themselves. And that was Barbara Gordon and Helena Beauman.

Barbara Gordon was the daughter of one Jim Gordon, the great detective of the GCPD. She was smart, and she was in the same classes as Dick. She was interested in the two vigilantes that protected Gotham city, so she did her research. Barbara Gordon figured it out by finding out everything she could about the vigilante side.

Helena Beauman was a different story. She’d found out that Robin was Dick Grayson, because she knew Dick Grayson so well. She’d been the first person in Gotham that had befriended him. They’d met at the gala tat Bruce had thrown in honor of his adoption. She was the daughter of some one of the men that worked for Bruce.

She came and hid behind the same curtain as he did. And they shared their stories. She had also been adopted, but her story wasn’t quite as tragic or as glamorous as his. Her mother had been a junkie, and she’d been one of the kids lucky enough to be seized by the state. She was also one of the kids lucky enough to have a good family adopt her.

Unlike a lot of the rich kids at this party, she hadn’t let her status in the world go to her head. She’d been so incredibly down to earth. They’d become friends almost instantly, and once he’d figured out that they were going to the same school, they were almost inseparable.

But then she’d gotten sick. She was getting weaker and weaker every day, and the doctors were still processing the tests and trying to find out what was wrong with her. When they finally did find out what was wrong (multiple types of cancer), they had difficulty figuring out the best way to treat her. Her chances didn’t look good, but the doctors were hopeful that she could make a recovery. She started chemo immediately, and her parents pulled her out of school.

That didn’t stop him from visiting her whenever he could. When she was in the hospital getting treatment, they grew even closer. She knew everything about him. She knew how his mother had used to call him Robin as a child, and she knew how the thing he missed most about living in the circus - other than his parents and birth family – was flying.

As soon as she’d seen the newspaper article about Gotham’s new vigilante who went by the name ‘Robin’ and seemed to fly through the streets, she knew it had to be him. He hadn’t had the heart to lie to her, and soon, she was his biggest fan.

She collected the articles religiously, and always wanted to hear his stories whenever he had the chance to visit. She was the one that he was able to confide in about everything. She knew all the details about the fights that he had with the villains of Gotham, and she knew everything about his progress with Young Justice.

There was nothing that he kept from her. Whenever he was hurt, she helped him heal. In return, he helped make her days just a little bit brighter. He visited her so often, that the hospital staff knew him very well. They didn’t know his secret, only that he had a very big imagination, a very big obsession with the Dynamic Duo, and a very weird group of friends.

Helena always loved to hear stories about the stupid things that Wally did, or when Roy had thrown his hat. Looking back at the situation, it _was_ rather humorous. He’d gone to her when, they’d had trouble accepting M’gann, and she’d just mocked him for not accepting her into their boys club.

He’d gone to her when Artemis had arrived and he was afraid of losing Wally to a girl. She calmed him down and helped him understand that Wally wouldn’t suddenly abandon him for a girl. He’d go to her whenever he had a problem. She’s always give him great advice, and that sort of reminded him of his mother.

Today he needed her more than he’d ever needed her before. He had just left the fail safe simulation. It was horrible. Everyone he knew and loved was dead, and he, a 13 year old teen, was put in charge of saving the world. He seemed to make all the wrong choices, and he got his friends killed.

Only to learn it had all been a simulation gone wrong because M’gann couldn’t control her emotions. Then everyone got all fussy and no one was thinking straight. He cried in front of Bruce. He hadn’t done that in years. He needed her advice desperately.

He practically ran into her hospital room, almost forgetting to pull off his sunglasses and slick his hair back. He collapsed onto the stiff hospital chair that sat beside her bed. Luckily, it seemed he came at a good time, she was awake.

She seemed to be getting better lately, and the doctors were hopeful. The color was returning to her face and she was awake for longer now. She was somewhat energetic when he entered, but as soon as she saw how defeated he looked she sobered up. She placed a hand delicately on his own, being careful to not disturb the multitude of tubes that were attached to her person.

“What’s wrong, Little Bird?” she asked softly. Her voice was soft, gentle even, and almost musical. Her deep chocolate eyes stared at him, showing a deep intelligence as she tried to figure out what had happened just based off of body language.

He gripped her hand tightly as he tried to think of a way to explain. He felt much calmer now that he was with her. It was easier to think… about what happened. The nickname helped ground him, it reminded him so much of when he used to talk to his mother. She called him ‘Little Robin’ instead, but the effect of the affectionate name was the same.

“I made a lot of bad decisions today. Stuff that could have destroyed the world” he admitted quietly. “There was a simulation that we did. All of the mentors were dead and it was up to us to protect everyone and stop an alien invasion. Then people from YJ began getting killed and it was up to me to start calling the shots. We blew up the lien ship, but everyone died… including me.”

“The only one who made it out was M’gann. Her powers were what was fueling the simulation, and her belief that we were actually dead triggered our own belief, so we each went into a small coma upon our ‘death’. We only woke up when we were able to shock M’gann into waking up.” He finished.

Helena stared at him sadly. “Dick” she began in a gentle tone, “I’m sure you did everything you could. You have to remember that you’re still young, making mistakes is part of learning.” Dick frowned at that phrase. Sometimes he really hated hearing it, and now was unfortunately one of those times.

“But my mistakes almost cost the world! And it did cost my friends their lives, even if it was only a simulation. They thought they actually died, Helena!” he almost screamed. The only thing that did keep him from screaming out all of his frustrations was the fact that he was in a hospital, and despite how strong his friend might seem, she was recovering from a possibly terminal illness.

She shook her head lightly. “You shouldn’t have had to make those choices. But sometimes people die, and there’s nothing you can do but keep moving forward. You made a mistake this time, and you’re young. They can’t honestly expect you to be perfect. All you can do is be better next time.” She told him in a sensible voice.

Dick had to admit that she had a point. The tension in his shoulders relaxed and he held her hand gently to his cheek, nuzzling the soft flesh. She always knew just the right thing to say to make him feel better. He grinned sadly at her, sending her a silent thank you through his eyes. She smiled at him in return, her eyes turning into crescents as she smiled.

She let him hold her hand lightly before she gently maneuvered her hand away. She leaned carefully over the mass of wires connected to her body and plucked a single flower from one of many bouquets sitting at her bedside. She held it daintily in her hand before offering it to Dick.

“This is an Alstroemeria, or more commonly known as the Peruvian Lily or Lily of the Incas. It symbolizes friendship and devotion. Here, take it, and remember that I’ll always be here for you. Even when you screw up majorly” she told him with a smile.

The flower looked like an ordinary lily to Dick. It was white with some dusky pink lines on the longer petals, along with some pink around the edges of the petals. There was also some dark pink, almost burgundy, ovals dotted on the petals. It was quite a beautiful flower, and he truly appreciated the meaning of it.

He carefully held the flower in his hand and leaned forward to give Helena a grateful hug. “Thank you, for everything” he said genuinely. She always managed to make him smile. “But I’m afraid that I’m going to have to leave you for today. I still have a lot of homework, but I’ll come see you tomorrow. You look better and better every day. Soon you’ll be out of here and back to your normal life.” He assured her. She smiled and waved to him as he left.

 

* * *

 

But Helena didn’t get any better. In fact, just when it looked like she would make a full recovery, the cancer made a return, and it looked like she wouldn’t survive this last bout of cancer. Her body was simply too week for chemo, and surgery wasn’t an option either. Dick visited as often as he could. Often skipping out on training or bonding sessions at the Mountain in favor of visiting is dying friend.

Every day he brought her a single Peruvian Lily, and soon she had an entire vase of different colored lilies. She smiled ever time that she saw him, but even though Robin was in denial, he could see just how tired and beaten down she was now a days.

The cancer was being real rough on her, and she was approaching the end. Robin didn’t want to admit it, but even through the denial he couldn’t deny that at this point, with all the pain her illness was causing her, death would be a kindness.

And so he sat at her bedside yet again. He had come directly from school, even though he should have been at the Mountain. He was missing another mandatory training session with Black Canary, but he considered spending his time with Helena more important than watching Dinah beat the snot out of Wally yet again.

He had just finished telling her about a prank that he’d played on his history teacher that day when she touched his hand, letting him know that she wanted to speak. “Robin…” she whispered. Her voice had given out a couple days before, and all she could do was whisper. “Listen to me for a moment. I don’t think I have much time left… so I wanted to thank you while I can still talk. You’ve been such an amazing friend… I just… wanted to let you know that I love you. You mean so much to me” she told him quietly.

He shook his head slightly and responded, “don’t talk like that! You’ll see, everything will be fine.” He said. But even he could hear the desperation in his voice.

“Can you do one thing for me after I die?” she asked him softly. He nodded frantically, he’d do anything she asked, as long as it made her last moments peaceful. “Don’t ever stop flying. Fly for me.” She said finally. Her eyes watered as she smiled sadly up at him. The grin was weak, but she was smiling and that’s all that mattered.

He nodded frantically once again. Whatever she wanted. This might as well be her last wish. He would honor it no matter what. The fact that he could ‘fly’ had always been something that she was fascinated with. She’d made him promise to teach her, but then she’d gotten sick. She’d held on to the hope that she’d be able to fly with him one day, or as soon as she got better.

But now she can barely talk, there was no way that she would even be sitting up in the near future. “Just you wait, Helena. You’ll get out of here soon. And when you do, I’ll teach you how to fly. You’ll fly, I promise” he told her as she drifted off to sleep.

 

* * *

 

She died 2 days later.

The funeral had been a small quiet affair. Her parents might have been rich, but she didn’t have all that many friends, and they didn’t have much family. The parents wanted it to be a small affair, to make it more personal. It was none of the reporter’s business, so they shouldn’t be there to witness them sending off their daughter.

She’d wanted to be cremated, so that they could throw her ashes off of a cliff and let them disperse into the wind. Dick, Bruce, and the parents had been the only ones present for that final send off. Partly because the cliff that she’d asked for had been on the Wayne property, and partly because Dick had been the one to both hear her last words and he was there when she finally passed.

He was her best friend, and she had been his. There was no way that he would have missed this. Coincidentally he was missing yet another one of the mandatory training sessions, but Bruce had given him free pass in missing the training sessions. Especially today.

At least she finally got to fly. Bruce and her family had a small head stone placed on the edge of the cliff where they stood to remember her. Dick visited it every day, vowing to never forget her. He talked with Bruce, and they’d even modified his suit. Instead of the small cape that he’d had before, now he had one that functioned and looked more like wings.

He’d fly for her.

_Helena Beauman_

_1995 – 2010_

_Once upon a time, there was a girl who wanted to fly…_

 

* * *

 

When he’d returned to the mountain, he found all of the team waiting for him in the training room. “Dude! Why’d you miss practice, _again_?” Wally asked upon Robin’s entrance. Kaldur frowned in disapproval at Robin’s attire. He still hadn’t changed out of the suit he wore to Helena’s funeral.

“You can’t continue to do this, Robin. We’re a team and you need to show up so we know you’ve got our backs.” Artemis said sharply, glaring at him slightly. He’d cost them valuable practice time, not to mention most of their practice had been useless without Robin so they’d just been wasting time.

Robin took on one look at all of them before turning around and locking himself in his room. He didn’t come out for hours. Despite the soundproof walls, Conner could swear he heard sobs coming from Robin’s room.

 

* * *

 

After that Robin stopped missing practices, but he was more closed off than before. He spent hours in the gym, just flying on the trapeze, tuning everything out. Not even his friend Wally was able to pull him out of the funk. He wasn’t even able to find out why he was in the funk in the first place.

They had been pretty miffed when he had missed a bunch of mandatory practices, but that was still better than now. He’d gotten almost obsessive in making sure that everyone on the team was safe. Well other than himself, he’d gotten even more reckless than before.

Especially if it concerned him jumping off really tall buildings. The first time he’d shown them how his new cape worked, they’d early had a heart attack. They were still confused by his obsession with being in the air and flying, but they went with it, fearing what the back lash would be if they didn’t.

And so life continued on and they got used to the new closed off Robin. Then one day, they’d witnessed him shatter, and everything changed.

It had been a normal day. Everyone was gathering at the Mountain for a movie night. Something that M’gann had proposed and that no one else had bothered to argue with. Even Robin had showed up tonight and M’gann was very excited.

She’d just been arranging a bouquet of flowers she’d picked up today when Robin walked in. The others were in the kitchen, either watching M’gann or just raiding the cupboards for snacks. Robin had taken one step into the room before he suddenly froze, staring intently at the flowers in her hand. Artemis had just placed a vase full of water onto the table.

M’gann smiled at him and held up the flowers so that he could see them better. “Do you like them? I saw them at a flower stall and thought that I’d pick some of them up. They’re called–“ She began, but she was soon cut off by Robin.

“Alstroemerias, or Peruvian Lilies” he said in a shocked voice. M’gann’s smile faltered slightly at his facial expression, but she continued anyway as she placed them in the vase of water. “They’re a–“

“They’re a symbol of friendship and devotion” Robin said at the exact same time, echoing her. Although the way that he didn’t look up from the flowers and the slight stunned expression, they could tell that he wasn’t 100% with him. By then the others had stopped doing whatever they were doing and had begun to stare at the exchange passing between two of their team members.

“Y-yeah… how did you know that Robin?” M’gann asked, slightly taken aback. She hadn’t expected anyone to know what the flowers meant. Let alone one of the boys. But to be fair, Robin was trained by Batman, so he probably had to learn the language of flowers for some mission.

Robin’s upper lip began to tremble. The sight of which terrified them. Robin seemed to have shut down recently. That’s not even mentioning how he was before. Never before had they seen Robin show any weakness.

Upon seeing their horrified stares, Robin promptly turned and ran from the room. The rest remained frozen for a couple moments before exchanging glances. “We need to find him” Kaldur said calmly. The others nodded and they split up in search of Robin, M’gann quickly setting up the psychic link.

They searched all over Mount Justice and were unsuccessful in their quest. That is until Wally stumbled upon him by accident. When he did, he had to resist the urge to facepalm. Why hadn’t he thought of checking the training room before?

Now a days that’s where Robin spent all of his free time at the mountain. He quickly told the others where he’d found Robin and then he was padding softly into the large room. The trapeze was set up there and Robin was already flipping from bar to bar, completely tuning out the world. There was even a sad playlist going in the background.

Wally recognized it as the same playlist that Robin listens to on the anniversary of his parent’s death. But it wasn’t anywhere near that date, and as far as he knew there wasn’t any more of those days. OS the flowers had to be the trigger for this. But that type of flower had never bothered him before?

It was weird. But Wally knew well enough by now that he shouldn’t interrupt the vigilante when he was in the zone. It never ended well, so he simply sat off to the side to wait for him to be finished. Robin always finished at the end of the playlist, and if he remembered the order correctly, then it was already half way done.

When the others finally arrived, he motioned for them to sit and wait with him. They sat and waited, watching Robin flip and fly elegantly through the air. Not missing a beat or faltering at all. He truly lived up to the legend hat the Flying Graysons left behind. Then he executed a perfect back flip and landed on the floor barely making a sound.

Breathing heavily he turned to face them and sort of just plopped down on the floor and crossing his legs. The others, deeming it safe enough, approached him slowly and sat in front of him. “Robin” M’gann began in a clam and soothing tone, “what’s wrong? You can talk to us, I promise we won’t judge.”

Robin looked at them for a moment, searching their eyes for any sign of deceit. When all he saw was quiet honesty and comfort, he completely broke down into heart wrenching sobs. The others crowded around him and initiated a group hug where they sat in silence, letting Robin sob his heart out.

It took him 15 minutes, but he eventually ran out of tears. And then he began to talk. He rambled on and on for hours. He began with explaining who Helena was and how much she meant to him. Then he rambled about her. Anything and everything he could think of. How beautiful her hair was and how amazing her eyes were. How she was a very good listener and gave even better advice.

Soon it was very clear to the others that he was in love with this Helena. At first, because of his ramblings they simply thought that he had confessed and had been turned down. But then he started talking about how she’d gotten sick, and how all she’d wanted to do was fly.

Then he spoke of her funeral, and they suddenly understood why he was so devastated. They may have been heroes and vigilantes, but so far none of them had had anybody close to them actually die. Robin had, first with his parents, and now with someone that he loved very much.

It wasn’t fair. Robin was so young and he’d already lost so much. And with their job, they had a high chance of dying. There was a big chance that Robin could lose Batman, and them in the near future. That was not a comforting thought.

After a while of him just explaining how sometimes her eyes would shift colors in the light, Robin finally brought up the flowers. He explained how since she’d spent so long in the hospital, she’d gotten quite a few bouquets of flowers. But one day, she’d plucked a beautiful Peruvian Lily from one of them and given it to Robin.

A token of their friendship or so Robin claimed. From that day onward he’d brought her one every day until the day she died. After that admission they just let him ramble about which colors Helena had like best, and how she had learned flower language as a child. They found out what her favorite books were, and who her favorite actors were.

But most of all they learned about how much she’d wanted to fly. And what she’d made Robin promise when she died.

During some one of his many ramblings about how amazing Helena was, M’gann had managed to sneak out of the group hug and made her way back to the kitchen. She later returned holding a single flower. She offered it silently to Robin, and he took it gently in his hand.

He smiled through the tears that dripped down his face.

 

al·stroe·me·ri·a

/ˌalstrəˈmirēə/

_noun_

noun: **alstroemeria** ; plural noun: **alstroemerias**

  1. a South American plant with showy lilylike flowers
  2. meaning: friendship, devotion




End file.
